By the time you read this the third and final part of the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King will finally (about time!) have been shown. We are among the last among the Hollywood-crazed countries to see the movie so I bet the anticipation by LOTR fanatics must have been so consuming. The queues of restless audiences in the movie houses must be deadlier than an army of marauding Orcs.
[DatePublished] => 2004-01-16 00:00:00
[ColumnID] => 134551
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[AuthorID] => 1440428
[AuthorName] => KETCHUP PLEASE, LUIS! By Luis Carlo San Juan
[SectionName] => Young Star
[SectionUrl] => young-star
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[ArticleID] => 233889
[Title] => A fitting finale to a stirring saga
[Summary] => Holiday moviegoers powered the North American box office with one of the biggest weekends in history as four new releases entered the top 10 while returning champ The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King remained the no. 1 draw at the multiplexes during the post-Christmas period.
The wait is over and The Two Towers, the second book of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy is finally on the screen. And here is one of those rare cases where the film has emerged as a worthy translation of the original. The movie is more spectacular than Tolkien or any lover of the books ever envisioned.
MANILA, Philippines — Alas Pilipinas team captain Jia de Guzman has tempered expectations on their chances against a heavily favored Vietnam and in the FIVB Challenger Cup that came off the wraps at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium yesterday.
But deep inside the soft-spoken and courageous skipper and the rest of Nationals, they all dream of the same big dream – a ticket straight to the Women’s Volleyball Nations League main group next year.
And their quest begins tonight when they square off with the Vietnamese at 6:30 p.m.
The home bet is the underdog versus the Vietnamese side that swept and dominated last month’s AVC Challenge Cup at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum. The Filipinas snatched a historic bronze there.
“Well, alam naman po namin na mas malakas ang kalaban and we know our team is young. All we can ask the girls is to do its best while not putting pressure on the team that much,” said the charismatic Alas team leader.
The team lost power spiker Eya Laure and libero Jen Nierva and were replaced by Creamline’s Jema Galanza and National University’s Bella Belen.
Belen’s teammate, Alyssa Solomon, and Galanza’s fellow Creamline star, Tots Carlos, were enlisted into the pool but will not be able to join due to undisclosed reasons.
“It’s great to have new reinforcements in the pool. Experience-wise, marami ang mako-contribute nila sa team,” said De Guzman of Galanza and Belen.
Intriguingly, Nierva’s last-minute withdrawal left the squad with one legitimate libero in Dawn Catindig.
Cherry Nunag was listed as the team’s second libero although she’s known as a natural middle blocker.
The other members of the team are Faith Nisperos, Fifi Sharma, Vannie Gandler, Julia Coronel, Angel Canino, Dell Palomata, Arah Panique, Thea Gagate and Sisi Rondina.
The trek to that VNL dream is long and arduous though as Alas Pilipinas would need to win all its games against Vietnam, the semis and eventually the finals, assuming it could make it that far, to realize it.
In the opener of the meet, Puerto Rico turned back a feisty Kenya 25-20, 25-19, 27-25, to advance to the semis.
Teenage sensation Grace Mar Lopez Villanueva went on attack mode and fired 19 points including 18 on kills while Diana Reyes scattered 10 hits.
Pamella Adhiambo Owino tried to put up a fight for the Kenyans by unloading a match-best 22 points. most of which came in the third set when they tried
to put up a fight and steal the set before eventually falling short in the end.
- 12:00 am